Pa. cops arrest EP man in alleged teen sex scheme

April 29, 2014

EAST PALESTINE - An East Palestine man is being held in a Pennsylvania jail after he allegedly tried to have sex with an underage girl there.

According to reports from WTRF Channel 7 television, Jacob Meadows, 21, began sending inappropriate and sexually explicit text messages to a girl in Cranberry, Pa., located in Butler County, when the girl was 13 years old.

The text messages are being reviewed as evidence in the case against him by Cranberry police and agents with the Pennsylvania Attorney General Predator Section, which indicated the girl was being sexually exploited through those messages, obtained from the girl's cell phone.

The authorities began exchanging text messages with Meadows on Nov. 13, 2013 through April 25 of this year, with Meadows believing he was communicating with the now 14-year-old girl, according to the TV report.

During the conversations 500 text messages were exchanged, with a majority being sexual in nature and centered around him requesting nude photographs from her, or having her meet him somewhere for sexual activity, Channel 7 said.

Meadows was arrested after traveling to Cranberry Township on April 25 to meet with the girl for the purpose of bringing her back to his house to have sex, police said.

According to reports, Meadows sent a series of text message to the "girl" earlier that day encouraging her to sneak away from her father's house so they could have sex at his house in East Palestine that night.

Authorities were waiting for him at the predetermined Cranberry Township location and he was arrested on one count unlawful contact with a minor, one count of criminal attempt/involuntary deviant sexual intercourse, one count of unlawful contact with a minor and one count of criminal use of a communication facility.

He is being held in the Butler County Jail on $150,000 bail and a preliminary hearing is set for 9 a.m. May 2 before Cranberry Magisterial District Judge David Kovach.